The Development of Women’s Higher Education in Prerevolutionary Russia

This work examines the development of women’s higher education in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Consideration is given to the characteristics of the higher women’s courses in the country’s university cities. Reference was made to a set of regulations relating to women’s higher education in Russia issued in the early 20th century. The use of the fundamental principles of historicism, systematicity, and objectivity helped gain a proper insight into the development of women’s higher education in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The study’s findings revealed that the development of women’s higher education in the Russian Empire had several distinctive characteristics. A major role in this process was played by private women’s educational institutions, more specifically the higher women’s courses. Originating back in 1859, these courses were continually perfected and harmonized with the system of higher education under the purview of the Ministry of Public Education. At the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries, this even helped establish in Russia the two women’s state institutes. Overall, by the start of the 20th century Russia had in place nearly 25 different higher women’s courses, with instruction in this sector offered across a variety of subject areas, including pedagogy, medicine, architecture, technical drawing, art and design, and technical and practical sciences. The new vistas of opportunity opening up for women with a higher education helped many of them become active participants in social life in prerevolutionary Russia